neck cold sweat as a bridge pickup?

[ericsabbath]

has anyone tried this?

I have a spare cold sweat neck in a broken gibson SG and I have a greco les paul (1978 EG900) coming from japan
it has stock 70's dimarzio PAFs and I intend to order VHII's for her, but I won't have the cash right now and well... I can't live without BKPs anymore :(

does anyone know how the neck cold sweat would differ from the other bridge PAF models?
it reads about the same DC as my bridge riff raff (my riff raff has a custom larger magnet, though, so it's louder and punchier than usual)

[lyonk55]

Can't really say since I haven't had any of the other models, but I accidently had a Cold Sweat neck in the bridge and a Nailbomb bridge in the neck in my Tanglewood for a while. Too long ago to remember specifics, but it sounded good enough that it took me ages to notice the mistake and has me interested in lower outputs now, so it could be worth a shot.

[darkbluemurder]

I have not tried it - right now I still need the CS neck in the set until I find something different for the neck spot. It certainly can't hurt - either you like it or you don't - and then you can still order the VHIIs.

Cheers Stephan

[ericsabbath]

Can't really say since I haven't had any of the other models, but I accidently had a Cold Sweat neck in the bridge and a Nailbomb bridge in the neck in my Tanglewood for a while. Too long ago to remember specifics, but it sounded good enough that it took me ages to notice the mistake and has me interested in lower outputs now, so it could be worth a shot.

I remember you posted a thread about it (I answered it too)
I think FELINE mentioned something about it being similar to an underwound black dog (which would be perfect, since it should be brighter and less mid heavy)
but the black dog is polysol and I know the bridge cold sweat is enamel
not sure about the neck model
I just e-mailed Tim with all these questions
 
I still want a VHII for that Les Paul, specially after watching all hunter's videos,  but I think a mid term between the riff raff and black dog could deviate me from my plans

[ericsabbath]

"Hi Eric

yes the CS neck works well in the bridge position - coils are symmetrical and we use a short AV bar magnet v- SPN 42.5 AWG wire. Tonally it's a modern voiced PAF so not as organic or earthy in tone as a TM , RR or VHII - mids are much fuller than the VHII which sounds smoother by comparison.
These coils in the pic are pretty heavily aged - I'm sure we could come up with something similar so long as we work to the picture.

kindest regards

Tim"

[Philly Q]

"Hi Eric

yes the CS neck works well in the bridge position - coils are symmetrical and we use a short AV bar magnet v- SPN 42.5 AWG wire. Tonally it's a modern voiced PAF so not as organic or earthy in tone as a TM , RR or VHII - mids are much fuller than the VHII which sounds smoother by comparison.
These coils in the pic are pretty heavily aged - I'm sure we could come up with something similar so long as we work to the picture.

kindest regards

Tim"

Tim has confirmed what I was going to contribute by guesswork!  :lol:

I was going to say that the CS neck sounds to me like there's little or no offset between the coils. 

I thought mine was about 10k and therefore presumably a thinner wire, but looking at the specs again just now I see it's only 8.3k..... I think that 42.5 AWG is indeed the same as the Black Dog, isn't it?

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear what you think if you put it in the bridge position.

Let's see pics of yor Greco, by the way - I'm always watching eBay for MIJ LPs and the like!  :D

[ericsabbath]

"Hi Eric

yes the CS neck works well in the bridge position - coils are symmetrical and we use a short AV bar magnet v- SPN 42.5 AWG wire. Tonally it's a modern voiced PAF so not as organic or earthy in tone as a TM , RR or VHII - mids are much fuller than the VHII which sounds smoother by comparison.
These coils in the pic are pretty heavily aged - I'm sure we could come up with something similar so long as we work to the picture.

kindest regards

Tim"

Tim has confirmed what I was going to contribute by guesswork!  :lol:

I was going to say that the CS neck sounds to me like there's little or no offset between the coils.  

I thought mine was about 10k and therefore presumably a thinner wire, but looking at the specs again just now I see it's only 8.3k..... I think that 42.5 AWG is indeed the same as the Black Dog, isn't it?

Anyway, I'll be interested to hear what you think if you put it in the bridge position.

Let's see pics of yor Greco, by the way - I'm always watching eBay for MIJ LPs and the like!  :D

yeah, same wire and insulation of the black dog
the black dog has slightly offset coils, though
same resistance and apparently same short magnet of the riff raff (not sure if the black dog has a short one, but I'd guess it does)
in the neck of my les paul custom, compared to the mule, the cold sweat was tighter, slightly middier and a lot hotter
I had to roll the volume down to 6 to get a clean tone under gain (I have a '73 single channel modded JMP that is quite high gain), while the mule cleans up on 8-9

I'm still waiting for the Greco
it's a EG900 (1958 les paul standard copy?) that I scored from that chingo guy on ebay
I'm trying to figure out if it has maple or mahogany neck
the body is probably pancake construction, like my '73 Gibson

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320826051106

http://imageevent.com/chingo123/january2012/grecoeg900lpstsb1005





I'm still waiting for the greco

[Philly Q]

Looks good!  :D

Chingo has a lot of good MIJ stuff, as do a number of eBay sellers.  I think I've bought from most of them!  :lol:

[ericsabbath]

I wasn't even planning to buy one, but the GAS ruled over my reason when I saw the pics and price  :D

another answer from Tim about the magnets:

"Hi Eric

yes the standard RR has a short AV magnet as does the BD while the VHII uses the longer vintage cut magnet.
The custom RR I made you has a taller, 4mm, magnet."

[darkbluemurder]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for posting this information. I believe I have a candidate for my CS neck in the bridge spot. Just need to find something for the neck spot of the other guitar.

Cheers Stephan

[ericsabbath]

greco is here :D
finish looks almost flawless, so I'm not sure it's really a nitro finish
neck is maple
removed the pickguard, so it looks "slashy" right now
the G string tuning peg is really annoying me... veeeery loose and gets out of tune all the time
is there something I could do besides tightening the peg screw or swapping tuners?

the neck dimarzio paf is LOUD AS @#%$ and way too bassy
for some reason that is not only due to string vibration and position, the bridge pickup soundes very trebly and no near as loud (even by poking poles with a screwdriver)
the neck pickup reads exactly 7.5k and I can't get any reading from the bridge pickup (at least while it's still wired)
I gotta figure out what's wrong before I install the cold sweat
any ideas?

[darkbluemurder]

... the bridge pickup soundes very trebly and no near as loud (even by poking poles with a screwdriver)
the neck pickup reads exactly 7.5k and I can't get any reading from the bridge pickup (at least while it's still wired) ...

Sounds (no pun intended) to me like the bridge pickup is terminally ill. Time to fit the Cold Sweat neck I am afraid.

Cheers Stephan

[ericsabbath]

dropped a bit of glue on tuners and they are a bit more stable now

the stock paf doesn't show any reading even after removing it (??)
maybe it's short circuited by so much (cold?) sweat   :lol:

so... got the neck cold sweat out of my broken sg
added a naturally aged raw nickel BKP logo cover (that I removed from the black dog that I had to sell this week :( )
just installed it in the bridge position and it sounds freakin' amazing!  :D :D :D

hard to compare directly to other models, since it's a different guitar
only been testing for 15 minutes
this les paul has a very thick maple cap and a maple neck with brazilian rosewood board
compared to the black dog I had in my '73 les paul custom, this guitar sounds definitely brighter, tighter and more articulated than the black dog
compared to the custom riff raff (4mm magnet), it feels about as bright, but that may be the guitar's fault (the neck dimarzio paf sounds quite bright too, although it's very bassy)
the cold sweat neck has a lot of bite in the bridge, and somehow feels hotter than the black dog, despite of having a "cooler" winding
seems a bit less bassy than both, which is expected, since the thick magnet of the riff raff adds bass and my les paul custom is bassy as $%&#, but it's still thick enough
it also feels a bit middier than the riff raff, but not all mid centered as the black dog

I'll try it with the band tomorrow  :D

[Philly Q]

Sounds good!  :D

[lyonk55]

Glad you like it.

Now someone who can say more than "it was good" has done it, maybe we'll see some more weird combos in the future...